The Toronto Necropolis is a non-denominational cemetery on Winchester Street in Cabbagetown, opened in 1850 and described by Heritage Toronto as one of the city’s oldest and first non-denominational cemeteries. According to a TVO article on the site, 22,307 people were buried there between 1850 and 1899, among them William Lyon Mackenzie, George Brown, and Joseph Bloor.
It belongs to a group of three Victorian burial grounds that shaped how Toronto buried its dead: St. James Cemetery (1844), the Necropolis (1850), and Mount Pleasant Cemetery (1876). This article follows the Necropolis in detail and then places the other two beside it.
Why the Necropolis was created
TVO reports that the Toronto General Burying Ground, known as Potter’s Field and established in 1826, closed in 1855 because of development in Yorkville and the northward growth of the city. The Necropolis opened in 1850 on Winchester Street, in Cabbagetown, and took burials from people of any faith. The name is Greek for “city of the dead.”
The size of the original purchase is reported differently. TVO gives 18.25 acres (about 7.4 hectares). Other local sources give 18 acres or 15 acres (about 6.1 hectares). The seller of the land and the exact purchase date were not confirmed in the sources read for this article.
Timeline
| Year | Event | Source |
|---|---|---|
| 1826 | Toronto General Burying Ground (Potter’s Field) established | TVO |
| July 1844 | St. James Cemetery opens | St. James Cemetery |
| 1850 | Toronto Necropolis opens on Winchester Street | TVO |
| 1855 | Potter’s Field closes | TVO |
| November 1859 | Samuel Lount and Peter Matthews reburied at the Necropolis (November 26 or 28, depending on source) | TVO, Stones of Rebellion |
| 1872 | Chapel built, designed by Henry Langley | Wikipedia, citing Eric Arthur |
| 1876 | Mount Pleasant Cemetery opens | Parks Canada |
| June 28, 1893 | Monument to Lount and Matthews unveiled | TVO, Stones of Rebellion |
| April 16, 2004 | By-law 259-2004 designates the Cabbagetown North heritage conservation district | Ontario Heritage Trust |
The chapel and heritage status
The Wikipedia article on the Necropolis Chapel, citing Eric Arthur’s Toronto, No Mean City, states that the chapel was built in 1872 to designs by Henry Langley in the Gothic Revival style. That is a secondary reference to a printed book, and the book itself was not consulted for this article.
The cemetery’s own protection status could not be confirmed. The Ontario Heritage Trust register entry for 200 Winchester Street, an address often given for the Necropolis, lists it as a single dwelling inside the Cabbagetown North heritage conservation district. The district was designated by by-law 259-2004, enacted on April 16, 2004, under the Ontario Heritage Act, with a notice of passing on May 21, 2004. The entry does not mention a cemetery, so this article does not state the Necropolis’s address or an individual designation.
Samuel Lount, Peter Matthews, and the reburial of 1859
Two of the best-known graves belong to men executed after the 1837 rebellion in Upper Canada. The Dictionary of Canadian Biography states that Samuel Lount and Peter Matthews were executed on April 12, 1838, in the courtyard of the Toronto jail. The Stones of Rebellion site says they were first buried in the Strangers’ Burying Ground at the northwest corner of Bloor and Yonge streets.
According to Stones of Rebellion, on November 28, 1859, friends and sympathizers, among them William Lyon Mackenzie, removed the bodies and reburied them in a common grave at the Necropolis, and the marker placed then survives. TVO gives November 26, 1859, for the same event, so the day is disputed. A granite column with a maple-leaf design, erected by friends and sympathizers, was unveiled on June 28, 1893. Stones of Rebellion describes it as about 15 feet (4.6 meters) tall and severed to show lives cut short.
Other people buried at the Necropolis
TVO lists William Lyon Mackenzie, rebel leader and Toronto’s first mayor, who died on August 28, 1861; Joseph Bloor, who died in 1862; George Brown, a Father of Confederation and founder of The Globe, who died on May 9, 1880; the former mayors William H. Howland and James Beaty; the physician Joseph Workman; and the philanthropist Catherine Seaton Skirving. The Dictionary of Canadian Biography confirms the dates and offices of Mackenzie, but the burial places in this paragraph rest on the TVO article.
Heritage Toronto adds that Black residents of the 19th century, including Anglicans and Catholics, were often buried at the Necropolis because of discrimination elsewhere. It names Thornton and Lucie Blackburn, who founded Toronto’s first taxi company; Albert Jackson, the city’s first African Canadian letter carrier, and his wife Henrietta; William Peyton Hubbard, Toronto’s first Black acting mayor; and Wilson Ruffin Abbott and his son Anderson Ruffin Abbott, one of the first African Canadians to obtain a medical license. Their stories are covered in the site’s article on Black history in Toronto.
Two neighboring cemeteries
St. James Cemetery opened in July 1844 and is described by its own history page as the oldest cemetery still operating in central Toronto; it is owned and run by the Cathedral Church of St. James. John G. Howard prepared the original layout in 1842. Cumberland and Storm were chosen to prepare plans for its chapel at a meeting on April 27, 1857, and Parks Canada, which designated the Chapel of St. James-the-Less a National Historic Site of Canada on February 23, 1990, gives its construction dates as 1857 to 1861. A crematorium was added in 1948.
Mount Pleasant Cemetery was designed in 1874 by the landscape gardener Henry Adolph Engelhardt and opened in 1876 after three years of development. Parks Canada, which designated it a National Historic Site of Canada in 2000, gives its area as about 83 hectares (about 205 acres) and calls it a notable surviving example of scenic design modeled on 19th-century rural American cemeteries.
Visiting a historic cemetery
These are working cemeteries, and some still hold burials. Guided walks, opening hours, and photography rules change from season to season, so the current arrangements should be checked with the operator of each cemetery before a visit. Visitors should keep to the paths and leave grave markers undisturbed.
Frequently asked questions
When was the Toronto Necropolis founded?
TVO and other local histories give 1850. It was set up in Cabbagetown to serve people of all faiths, and Potter’s Field, the older ground at Yonge and Bloor, closed in 1855.
Who is buried in the Toronto Necropolis?
Listed burials include William Lyon Mackenzie, George Brown, Joseph Bloor, and Thornton and Lucie Blackburn. Samuel Lount and Peter Matthews lie there beneath a memorial column unveiled in 1893.
Is the Toronto Necropolis a protected heritage site?
The cemetery’s own designation could not be confirmed. The Ontario Heritage Trust register lists a residence at 200 Winchester Street within the Cabbagetown North heritage conservation district, designated in 2004. Readers who need the exact status should ask the City of Toronto’s heritage staff.
What is the difference between the Necropolis, St. James Cemetery, and Mount Pleasant Cemetery?
St. James opened in 1844 and is run by the Cathedral Church of St. James, the Necropolis opened in 1850 for all faiths, and Mount Pleasant opened in 1876 as a much larger designed landscape and a national historic site.
Related reading
- An overview of Toronto’s history, the starting point for the city’s wider story
- Historic churches of Toronto, including parishes that ran burial grounds
- Historic buildings of Toronto, for the Victorian architecture around Cabbagetown
- How Toronto’s heritage register protects historic places
- Where to research Toronto’s past in newspapers and archives
Last verified: October 2026
Sources
- TVO, In the city’s picturesque Necropolis, find a who’s who of 19th-century Toronto
- Heritage Toronto, Black history at the Necropolis Cemetery
- Stones of Rebellion, Memorials to Samuel Lount and Peter Matthews
- Dictionary of Canadian Biography, Lount, Samuel
- Ontario Heritage Trust, Ontario Heritage Act register entry for 200 Winchester Street
- Parks Canada, Mount Pleasant Cemetery National Historic Site of Canada
- Parks Canada, Chapel of St. James-the-Less National Historic Site of Canada
- St. James Cemetery, History and architecture
- Wikipedia, Necropolis Chapel (secondary source citing Eric Arthur, Toronto, No Mean City, 1986)
Cite this page
APA: History of Toronto. (2026, October 23). Toronto Necropolis and Toronto’s Historic Cemeteries. https://historyoftoronto.ca/blog/explore-the-fascinating-history-of-toronto-necropolis-with-a-guided-walk-through-its-hallowed-grounds
MLA: “Toronto Necropolis and Toronto’s Historic Cemeteries.” History of Toronto, 23 Oct. 2026, https://historyoftoronto.ca/blog/explore-the-fascinating-history-of-toronto-necropolis-with-a-guided-walk-through-its-hallowed-grounds. Accessed .
Chicago: History of Toronto. “Toronto Necropolis and Toronto’s Historic Cemeteries.” Last modified October 23, 2026. https://historyoftoronto.ca/blog/explore-the-fascinating-history-of-toronto-necropolis-with-a-guided-walk-through-its-hallowed-grounds.
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